The Bold Outlaw website has been a fantastic resource for Robin Hood fans and researchers for years now, so I’m very pleased to say the guy that runs it, Allen W. Wright, has posted an interview with me there. Take a look and let us know what you think! And don’t forget Abbey of Death is avilable to pre-order now, to be published on the 26th of this month…

AWW: One of the things I really enjoyed about your books was the relationship between the outlaws and Wakefield. Even though the Merry Men have friendly relations with villages in other version of the legend, the Forest Lord series depicts a greater sense of dependence. Is this something that came from your research of medieval outlaws, and what is your impression of the relationship between outlaws and society?

SAM: I think it would be impossible to live as an outlaw in medieval England without help from people in the villages. You couldn’t bake your own bread, forge your own arrowheads, make your own shoes etc so you’d NEED to have a relationship with the people in the towns and villages around you. I think it depends on what crime has been committed how society views an outlaw. In my books Robin and his friends are, for the most part, victims of the unjust medieval laws and those who enforced them. My research did show that sheriffs and bailiffs were commonly abusing their position – jailing people on trumped up charges simply so they could force the hapless captor to pay for their release for example. That sort of thing happened a lot. So of course, the people in the villages would be happy to help men who’d been wronged by the system – to this day people love to get one over on hated authority figures!